We propose an economic theory of infectious disease transmission and rational behavior. Diseases are costly due to mortality (premature death) and morbidity (lower productivity and quality of life). The theory offers three main insights. First, higher disease prevalence implies lower...

In this paper we propose a growth model in which the combined effect of human capital and technology adoption is the key factor in replicating and explaining growth miracles. Using standard technologies and parameterization, we show that the calibrated model generates output growth paths...

The growth literature has not yet established how data on education should be introduced in theories involving human capital. Early work used enrolment rates as a proxy of human capital whereas more recently it has utilized measures of average educational attainment taking advantage of new data...

This paper compares transitional dynamics in two alternative R&D non-scale growth models; one includes endogenous human capital, whereas the other does not. We show that focusing on the speed of convergence to discriminate between the two models can be misleading. Our analysis suggests that a...

This paper studies the transition dynamics predictions of an R&D-based growth model, and evaluates their performance in explaining income disparities across nations. We find that the fraction of the observed cross-country income variation explained by the transitional dynamics of the model is as...

This paper uses dynamic general equilibrium and computational methods, inspired by the multi-sector growth model structure in Stephen Turnovsky’s previous and more recent work, to develop a theory that unifies two of the traditional explanations of structural change: sector-biased technical...

This paper searches for the determinants of government-funded R&D. The goal is to disentangle whether the efficiency considerations overwhelmingly emphasized by the theoretical literature are indeed the main driving force behind public R&D expenditures. Another goal of the paper is to assess...

The paper studies technology policy within a version of Jones's (1995) non-scale R&D-based growth framework that incorporates imitation of foreign techniques. The transitional dynamics of the model can account for some well-known empirical regularities regarding the relationship between the...

This paper shows, within a Heckscher-Ohlin version of the two-sector neoclassical growth model, that land, besides having long-run effects, is also a main determinant of the speed of convergence toward the steady state when there are cross-sector capital share differences. This result stands in...

This paper investigates how a country's specific-factors endowment affects its long-run economic performance. We build an open-economy version of the two-sector neoclassical growth model in which we introduce fixed industry-specific inputs in both activities. The model predicts the type of...